Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Special Provisions) Act 1957

F1 F2 3 General provisions as to service departments records. U.K.

(1) All such registers and copies of entries in registers or records as have been duly transmitted to the Registrar General for England and Wales, the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Scotland or the Registrar General for Northern Ireland in pursuance of this Act, or of section two of the M1 Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Army) Act 1879 or of section thirty-seven of the M2 Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874 [F1 or of any relevant order], shall be known as “the Service Departments Registers”.

F3 (2) The enactments relating to the registration of births and deaths [F3 and marriages[F3 , marriages and civil partnerships]] in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (which contain provisions authorising the admission in evidence of, and of extracts from, certified copies of registers and duplicate registers) shall have effect as if the Service Departments Registers were certified copies or duplicate registers transmitted to the Registrar General in accordance with those enactments.

(3) An error of fact or substance in any register or other record kept in pursuance of this Act or of section two of the M3 Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Army) Act 1879 or of section thirty-seven of the M4 Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874 [F1 or of any relevant order], may be corrected by an entry in the margin (without any alteration of the original entry) by such officer as may be specified in an Order in Council under this Act upon production to him of a statutory declaration setting forth the nature of the error and the true facts of the case made [F4 either]by two credible persons having knowledge of the truth of the case, [F4 or, where it applies, in accordance with section 3A of this Act] and Her Majesty may by Order in Council provide for the correction of clerical errors in any such register or other record.

[F2 (4) In this section “relevant order” means any order made under section 104 of the Scotland Act 1998 in consequence of the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 which provides for the change of a civil partnership formed under Part 3 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 in a country or territory outside the United Kingdom by—

(a) a member of Her Majesty’s forces (within the meaning of the Armed Forces Act 2006) serving in the country or territory in which it is proposed they change their civil partnership;

(b) a civilian subject to service discipline within the meaning of the Armed Forces Act 2006 who is employed in that country or territory;

(c) a child of a person falling within paragraph (a) or (b) and whose home is with that person in that country or territory (including a person who is or has been treated as the child of a person (“P”) in relation to a marriage or civil partnership to which P is or was a party.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in s. 3 inserted (E.W.S.) (10.12.2014 for E.W., 16.12.2014 for S.) by The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Consequential and Contrary Provisions and Scotland) and Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 (Consequential Provisions) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/3168), art. 1(2)(3), Sch. para. 4(3)(a)

F2 S. 3(4) inserted (E.W.S.) (10.12.2014 for E.W., 16.12.2014 for S.) by The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Consequential and Contrary Provisions and Scotland) and Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 (Consequential Provisions) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/3168), art. 1(2)(3), Sch. para. 4(3)(c)

F3 Words in s. 3(2) substituted (E.W.S.) (10.12.2014 for E.W., 16.12.2014 for S.) by The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Consequential and Contrary Provisions and Scotland) and Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 (Consequential Provisions) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/3168), art. 1(2)(3), Sch. para. 4(3)(b)

F4 Words in s. 3(3) inserted (24.5.2002) by S.I. 2002/1419, art. 3(1)

Marginal Citations

M1 1879 c. 8.

M2 1874 c. 88.

M3 1879 c. 8.

M4 1874 c. 88.